NINE EMPEROR GODS FESTIVAL

Popular with Thailand's Chinese Buddhist community, and particularly followed in the Krabi, Phuket and Trang regions, the 9 Emperor Gods Festival is a 9-day vegetarian festival. It is an opportunity for its members to purify their minds and bodies. The event reaches its climax in Phuket, where bloody parades are held in the streets, with trance-like believers piercing each other's flesh with spikes and hooks. It takes place every year on the eve of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar.